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Race Review : Northgate 10km

These are my thoughts on the race..

Man was this morning a cold start … from home 🙂 I think at one point it was 4 degrees celsius.

Fortunately by the time we arrived at Northgate Mall it did not feel too cold but much warmer. Actually if I compare it to the first time we attended the race, where only hubby ran it was freaking freezing!

Parking : There was plenty of secure parking close to the start and around the race festivities.

Organisation : Roodepoort Athletics Club were the organising running club. This is one of those races I’ve come to know as an annual in the Gauteng Road Running calendar. This year the start and numbers collection moved to the back of the mall, a brilliant move by the club. In previous years it has been held in the front of the mall and just brought about terrible congestion.

Leading up to the race there was plenty of communication about where to collect the numbers.

Parking on the day was bliss, easy both on arrival and when we left. The route for the 10km was a great mix of both easy and difficult climbs, and balanced with some flats and slight downhills.

Marshalling : The marshals along the road were amazing throughout the race.

Water Tables : Plenty of water and coke at all the tables when I passed them.

Medals : Standard medal. Not too much detail to them. I like that they didn’t place a year on the lanyard or the medal. Opportunity to reuse if they have leftovers.

Overall : Entries were online but unfortunately if you were entering more than one person, it required two transactions. I understand that this will be improved in 2017, let’s see. Number collection was easy, no issues.

7:30am start was brilliant as it had warmed up some. I’m not sure why the club could not have invested on race numbers like other races of its calibre, sachet with a handwritten note kinda cheapens the race.

The manual placing as each runner arrives could be better managed with a chipped number. It also allow for faster confirmation by runners of their times. Parkruns and some club time trials are able to do the immediate or same day results, it’s time that Roodepoort AC invested on a system that allows same day results.

It was very well organised. The route was well-balanced with both easy and difficult parts to conquer, and well supported by marshals throughout guiding the runners. Parking was straightforward no issues on arrival nor when we left. I have not run in a while, so I used the race for training. I thoroughly enjoyed the run and managed to maintain my finish time average. This one is going into my 2017 Race Calendar!